A family man's 2018 season log

jeremy.b

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Finally HOME in N. Idaho!
Hey all, I'd like to introduce myself, my family and what is shaping up to be a bit of a crazy 2018 season for me.

My name is Jeremy, I was born in Montana, raised in central and northern Idaho and lived the last 19 years in Boise.

In April I moved my wife and 3 boys down to Utah (a door opened up to a new job that we all felt I should pursue).

This is my first attempt at a semi-live ANYTHING so I hope you all will bare with me here! (normally I just lurk on most forums :))

The first reason I'm starting up this semi-live thread is because I love to share my stories and this year is shaping up to have a few to tell.

Another reason is that I love my wife and kids dearly and work very hard to not be away for long periods of time (a week away is a big deal to our family!). That seems like an odd reason to start a semi-live thread doesn't it?

Well, while we all really enjoy reading the stories of folks that spend weeks in the field each fall, I wanted to tell the stories of a family guy who doesn't get out NEARLY as often, but who's stories are (hopefully!) just as memorable.

For fun, here's my 3 boys (ages 5, 3 & 5 months):

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The 5 yr old is already doing 4-6 miles and 1000+ ft of elevation with me every few weeks ;):

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After meeting my wife, and especially now having our boys, I put keeping meat in the freeze pretty high on my list of priorities each fall.

So generally I apply for easy-to-draw cow elk tags, and not be too choosy while hunting OTC deer/elk if nothing is drawn.

For fun, I also apply for rifle pronghorn in SW Idaho (never drawn yet!) and pronghorn in nothern Montana (family has a great spot we've hunted for years out there when we do draw). I'm still waiting to get the Montana pronghorn results, and this year my party has a pretty decent chance to draw.

The last couple years I began throwing an application into one of the trophy muley units in SW Idaho, never really expecting to draw.

At the begining of July I was impatiently checking the IDF&G site for drawing results and on the morning of July 6th they were posted:

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Lets see what we have here:

  • Muzzleloader cow elk tag in Sept: Selected, sweet!
  • Rifle pronghorn: Not Selected... No surprise there!
  • Nov Rifle Muledeer: Selected. Uh WHAT!!????!!! (My co-workers thought something had blown up when I reacted to that one!)

The very first thing I did when I saw the results was text my wife. We suddenly had an interesting scheduling challenge to work through!

Since we had moved to Utah, ALL of my trips were going to be extended time away from the family.

We could handle the cow hunt in September. Its in a unit I know well and doesn't require pre-scouting. I can be gone for around a week and have a good chance to fill that tag.

We can even handle the Montana pronghorn hunt if I draw. It would be 5-6 days in October over a long weekend (that and my wife knows how much I enjoy that hunt).

The deer hunt has thrown us a curve-ball though! The hunting time was pretty easy; the whole family will go up for the week of Thanksgiving and I'll hunt as many days as I can get during that time (6-7 days).

The challenge is that I don't know that deer unit at all and my scouting time will be pretty limited. Now, its a great tag, and I could just go hunt when possible and be happy with any fairly good sized muley buck I found.

BUT of course its not quite that simple...

In 2015 I was extremely fortunate (we'll say blessed actually) to take a REALLY nice OTC muley not far from Boise (my first muley actually, I'd hunted whitetails mostly in the past):

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(For those that care: 184 gross)

So now I'd REALLY like to get a buck of similar caliber this year, even though I know its not very likely (even in great units 180" bucks don't grow on every tree!).

I can safely commit one weekend this month to scouting. If I get lucky and get a cow early in my Sept hunt I'll head back into the area to scout more.

There's a chance I could scout again in October if we don't draw MT pronghorn, but given my already VERY busy hunting schedule (for me) that's questionable at this point.

And honestly even now I'm still working to set my expectations for that mule deer hunt... But that's part of it right! It should be a great hunt, no matter what though!

Anyway, that's enough for now, I'll be following up with a few posts on any applicable season prep, what our MT pronghorn draw results are (and plan impacts), and add updates as I get out (and back) from the field.

Thanks for tagging along, I hope the ride is a good one!
 
Good luck. It's definitely a balancing act with young kids. I remember when my youngest daughter was 3 or 4, I had been gone for only a couple of days on a trip and she told my wife she had forgotten what I looked like!

They're 10 and 6 now, so still require a lot of attention, but do understand that I'll be back after a few days :)

I look forward to seeing the account of your adventures..
 
Thanks guys!

This will be a fun season for sure! And part of that is me (trying to) avoid over-committing on these hunts. I value my time at home AND my bride's sanity which our 3 VERY active boys sometimes test that when I'm away...

But with that said, her and I are tackling this season together, so she knows what she's signing up for, and she also knows that I'll adjust to keep from taxing her too much as well.

I even have pulled her into working on this thread too (proofing and offering feedback). Doing this thread will be another time commitment for me and I like to have her involved in it as much as she's willing to be.
 
Can't wait to follow your story. I also have 3 kids so this really resonates. Good luck!!
 
Trend on here the last couple of years, have been season long tale of the different hunts. I truly enjoy those that have done them and I expect to enjoy yours as well.

Sounds like a lot of work and I appreciate it!
 
Love reading threads like this. I've been thinking about doing one myself but not sure people would be interested in the midwest public land whitetail kind of thread. Your everyman approach really gets me thinking I just might. Good luck!
 
Awesome congrats on the tags can't wait to follow along this fall. Beautiful family you have there.
 
Great post can't wait to follow along. My little girl will be 2 in October so I know (at least a little) what you're talking about. Balancing our family life and our passion for hunting is something we've all had to do to one degree or another but is seldom talked about.
 
I'm definitely excited to read this thread. I won't be making it out west from Florida this year, but I'm still hoping to get some quality hunting time in the books. I have three little ones, 8, 5, and almost 2 so I definitely know what you're going through with young kids. Thanks for posting this up, it should be a fun story!
 
Just wait till those kids are "of age"...opens a whole new perspective on hunting! Most fun I have ever had! Looking forward to more from you!
 
Welcome to our family.I'll be along for the ride.dirtclod Az.Just got word little brother arriving from out of state Jan.1st..Opener of archery Javelina and archery mule deer.Haven't seen his family in 3yrs,guess i can miss the opener.:cool:
 
Hey guys, thanks again for the kind words, this will be a lot of fun!

Montana pronghorn drawing results are out and:

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Not Successful... Bummer but I can't really complain with drawing the Nov deer tag in Idaho!

My wife and I are pondering our October plans now, and even considering adjusting our November plans as well. There's a chance I'll either get two trips to hunt in Nov, or another scouting trip in Oct, so we'll see!

Anyway, I wanted to share a little about some of my muzzleloader prep to date because I learned some new things.

Muzzleloader prep:

This is the first time since 2012 that I've had a muzzleloader tag (September cow tag again, and didn't fill it). That year I bought my muzzleloader (a Knight Bighorn). I procrastinated on getting the tag, bought the rifle late in the summer and didn't spend a lot of time dialing it in. I was only really confident at 50 yards (I know...) and could do 75 yards on a really good rest/setup.

I knew I could improve my range and accuracy, both with practice, but with some more work on the rifle too. So after drawing my cow tag this summer I dove into some research.

Oh, and for those that don't know, in Idaho muzzleloaders must have open ignition, use flint/musket/percussion caps for ignition, have open sights and shoot solid lead projectiles (either full bore conicals or patched round balls).

On my Bighorn I have a Williams peep and was using the stock fiber optic sight that came with the gun. I shoot No Excuses 460gr conicals and previously had settled on a load of 80grs of Tripple 7 FFg. Any higher shot charge opened up my groups pretty dramatically.

First part of the project was load work-up. I picked up some .50 cal MPP sub-bases which allowed me to up my powder charge to 90grs of FFg and tighten my groups up. I was comfortably shooting 2-3" groups at 75 yards now (btw the red arrow points to the sub-base):

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With the stock fiber optic sight up front it was hard to aim very precisely at 100 yards and so I wasn't very happy with my groups past 75 yards. More research!

I found that folks were mounting a Lyman 17a globe front sight paired with some Lee Shaver inserts on their muzzleloaders which allowed a much finer aiming point. (Check out this article for details: https://www.gohunt.com/read/skills/increased-accuracy-from-an-open-sight-muzzleloader#gs.F5AgvVk)

I ordered the parts, swapped out the front sight and off to the races I went!

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After some practice and swapping from 90grs of T7 FFg to 90 grs of FFFg I ended up here:

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I'm pretty happy with that!

I'd love to really tweak and tune my setup for 150+ yards. But I only have one, MAYBE two more shooting outings before my Sept hunt. So what I'll be doing in that time is to shoot a bunch away from the bench (shooting off my pack, shooting sticks, etc) and get better at reloading quickly and such.

Next up is my first scouting trip for deer (lets hope I do a good job of grabbing some pictures for you guys), so more to come!
 
Great post! I've three grown and doing their thing. Four grand kids, love sharing adventure with them!
 

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